Rooftop Envy

I adore the community gardens near Okabe’s baseball fields—a flat stretch divided into small plots where families grow veggies, flowers, whatever. I don’t know where these gardeners live—probably in the city or at least a place without yard space; a few folks tend their patches throughout the day, but most show up in the hazy late afternoon. When I walk back to town after school around 4:15, a line of cars is parked along the narrow road, and tillers, trowels, and sprinkler hoses are at work across the field.Even in the country, I feel like it’s very rare to see a piece of land unutilized. The steep hillsides are often relatively undisturbed besides rows of tea bushes in some places and swaths of bamboo harvested in others, but the vast majority of flat land not under concrete is used for food. On a heavily populated group of islands, I imagine this is necessary, moreso as the Japanese diet is shifting, notably, toward a preference for meat over seafood.(Not-too-shabby rice growth in the 3 weeks I was away from Okabe!) (A whole field of wasabi...and just today I peeked inside the greenhouse across the street from the gardens, to discover rows and rows of lime trees!)It is heartening to see people out tending their greens, producing food for themselves or to sell or give to others to enjoy (I happily lugged home a huge bag of potatoes that a teacher gave to me from his plot in this garden); the small market stands are innumerable, not to mention the unattended roadside shelves stacked with produce and honor-system drop-boxes for payment. And even in the city, sidewalk space is used for planters of greenage—container gardens are set up along storefronts, curbside, wherever there’s a smidge of space—often fortressed by watering bottle borders.My only bit of critique is that I wish I’d see more rooftop space greened up. Perhaps this is mere jealousy, having not found a safe way up onto my own roof, but I am frustrated gazing over the neighbors’ expanse of flat concrete roof used for nothing but a small clothesline. Visions of rows of tomatoes, spinach, cilantro, basil, bell peppers, and more alight in my head—along with speculations on the cookouts and Girl Talk dance parties to be had up there—and I am disappointed to look out on the city from my balcony and see most rooftops flat and empty.How cool that such projects are catching on in NYC: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/06/17/dining/17roof.html?_r=2&th&emc=th